>Health Department to take on licensing of single-room surgeries
Each year, hundreds of thousands of surgical procedures are performed as same-day surgeries in the state’s nearly 230 outpatient surgery centers, a growing list of procedures that includes spine, joint, and bone operations; cataract surgery; plastic surgery; dental implants; and colonoscopies. The state Department of Health licenses hospitals and multiroom ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs), but it doesn’t license single-room surgical practices housed in a doctor’s office. They come under the purview of the state Board of Medical Examiners, which licenses doctors. But that could change during the lame duck session of the state legislature: on Monday, the Assembly Health Committee will hold a hearing on a bill to make all surgical facilities subject to uniform licensing by the health department. (Fitzgerald, NJ Spotlight)
